Following their poor 2018 performance at the World Cup in Russia, Costa Rica’s national team was left without a coach, the Fedefutol promptly parting company with Oscar. The same after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, despite that four years ago the Ticos managed an all-time high.
The 2014 firing was due supposedly to conflicts between the players and Jorge Luis Pinto, the Colombian coach that had taken the Ticos farther than any before. Yet, he was still fired.
Every time there are conversations about who can be the new coach of the National Team comes out his name.
In an exclusive interview with La Nacion on Friday, the Colombian says that he wants to flee the controversy, he wants to lead a team in which he can succeed.
“I’m not going to fight with anyone, I’m not going to argue with anyone, I’m going to do my job in the best way, in the best professional way,” he says around the club or country that has him as head of the bench in the future.
For the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Pinto’s participation was a commentator on the Fox network.
Although there is official word from the Costa Rican soccer federation, Fedefutobol, Pinto will be in Ticolandia in a couple of weeks, August 23, 24 and 25 to share his take on the “Congreso Internacional de Entrenadores” (International Coaches Congress), in Germany, a meeting of more than more than 150 people who are dedicated to form and direct players.
Asked whether he seeks to be Costa Rica’s next coach, which would be his third time behind the bench, Pinto said, “I do not like to think about what has not been given. Let’s hope that the directors choose the one they deem appropriate, whoever it may be. I’m not going to get involved in that, I think that the directors have full freedom and, of course, the power to put who they want. I do not know who the candidates are. If they have me as a candidate, I am grateful and good … to wait for them to decide.”
Q: You already know there has been talk about being proposed (to coach) the National Team. Would you like it?
A: “I am a football man, I would like to coach where I can do it in the best way, with the best quality and with the best delivery. I not only demand it (of the players), but I demand it of myself. Mourinho says a very big phrase for football: ‘I am self-demanding with myself’. And me too, I am one of those coaches proud to give their best.
“I have had many proposals and with more money and I have said no because I am interested in working where I feel happy, calm and able to do a good job”.
Q: In this stage of your sporting career with which team or club you aspire to coach?
A: “I aspire to whichever I believe I win. I’m interested in winning over money. That’s what I told the president of the Federation of Egypt, with whom I met: that above all I’m interested in winning. I told him an anecdote about a club that wanted to take me to China, but I said I was not interested.”
Q: Did you reject a million dollar offer from China?
A: “I told them I was not interested, I told them that I wanted to go where I could win, where I could succeed.”
Asked where he thinks he can succeed now, the ‘cafetero’ (an affectionate term for a Colombian), said, diplomatically, “where they respect you, understand your work and understand the demands of soccer.”
“Today more than ever I came from the World Cup convinced that teams that were not demanding have nothing to do in the tournament.
Q: In Costa Rica could I do that for the third time?
A: “I will have to see, take a look. Costa Rica is a country to work, to do things. I would say that it is an attractive country to be able to work.”
In conclusion, neither there has been no formal proposal made to Pinto by soccer federation officials, only rumor that an offer could be made when Pinto visits Costa Rica later this month, not has Pinto rejected the idea of coming back, following the bitter departure in 2014.
